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🗞️Diversity and inclusion news🗞️ |
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💼Grad jobs💼
Remember when landing your first job meant showing up, learning on the job, and maybe getting a coffee-fetching task or two? Yeah, those days are gone. AI is now the overachieving intern that never sleeps—and it’s taking all the junior roles.
Entry-level jobs for new grads in Big Tech are down by 50% since 2019. Internships are converting at rates lower than your Wi-Fi signal on a Monday morning. Employers now expect rookies to arrive “fully skilled,” because apparently “on-the-job training” is passé. Even Harvard grads like Kenneth Kang spent 10 months applying to 2,500 jobs just to get a single offer. Welcome to the AI economy, where the bots do the boring work—and humans are left wondering why they even went to university.
Experts warn this isn’t just a rough patch—it’s a looming leadership crisis. Automating junior tasks saves money now, sure, but who’s going to be tomorrow’s managers, engineers, and founders if no one gets the chance to learn the ropes? McKinsey and King’s Business School professors are waving red flags about skills gaps, while students are realising that ChatGPT can basically do their essays, leaving “critical thinking” on the endangered species list.
Some grads are fighting back: Kang and peers are launching low-cost consulting startups just to get experience and build résumés. Creative, resourceful, and slightly furious—that’s the new grad playbook.
So, while AI is making companies more efficient, it’s quietly gutting the entry-level pipeline. Future leaders, consider yourselves warned: if your first rung has vanished, you might need to build your own ladder.
Read more: Fortune / SignalFire |
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💰Women in VC💰
Venture capital is slowly getting a makeover, and women are finally getting a seat at the table. According to All Raise, the percentage of women in top VC roles has doubled since 2018—now 18.6% of the senior positions at leading firms. Sure, it’s progress, but let’s be honest: that’s still a lot of empty chairs at the mega-fund tables.
Promotions are happening (a quarter of women surveyed moved up last year), and investors are still keen to back underrepresented founders (75% said they’re looking for deals). Even more inspiring, more women are flying solo: over 100 women-led funds launched this decade, raising $5.3 billion in 2023.
All Raise CEO Paige Hendrix Buckner breaks it down: first, women got their foot in the door, then they proved they could perform. Firms realized a diverse decision-making table is actually… profitable. Who knew?
Read more: All Raise / TechCrunch coverage |
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🧠Things that make you go hmmm🧠 |
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🖥️A bold bid for Chrome🖥️
Yes, you read that right. Three-year-old AI startup Perplexity—worth an estimated $18 billion—just offered $34.5 billion for Google’s Chrome. For context, that’s like me bidding for SpaceX and expecting someone to back me because “well, technically someone could fund it.” It’s bold, almost absurd, but it’s exactly the kind of headline designed to get attention💰
Why does it matter? Chrome isn’t just a browser. It’s the gateway to 3.5 billion users and over 60% of the global browser market. Owning it would be like controlling the front door to the internet—suddenly, your AI isn’t just a toy, it’s a platform with reach, data, and influence. And that’s exactly why a US judge weighing antitrust remedies is the backdrop for this bid: Perplexity wants to look like the “capable independent operator” that could take Chrome if Google is forced to sell.
The irony is delicious😂
Perplexity’s own valuation is half the bid. Investors are reportedly on board—but the optics are what count here, not the spreadsheets. Analysts call it a stunt; some say the real value of Chrome is ten times higher. And yet, in the midst of AI hype, the story isn’t entirely far-fetched: whoever controls search controls discovery, and in an AI-first world, discovery is currency🏦
Perplexity positions itself as the “open web champion,” promising to maintain Chromium (the open-source backbone of Chrome), keep Google as the default search engine, and allow user choice👀
The wider story: This isn’t just about browsers. It’s a window into AI’s next frontier. Perplexity, alongside ChatGPT and Google Gemini, is trying to translate AI hype into tangible influence over the web ecosystem—showing how startups are willing to play bold, if speculative, games to secure a foothold against tech giants👣
📉 So what?
The Chrome bid is less about a transaction and more about signalling. It’s a reminder that the future of search—and by extension AI—isn’t just about building smarter algorithms. It’s about who owns the pipelines, who gets the data, and who decides how users interact with information. Startups can be nimble, audacious, and disruptive, but a three-year-old trying to outbid Google? That’s the kind of chaos only the AI era could produce.
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🔞Verify yourself to use Wikipedia?🔞
In a legal twist that feels very “bureaucracy meets volunteer army,” Wikipedia has lost its challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act rules—meaning the site could, in theory, have to verify the identities of its editors. For a platform built on the anonymity and goodwill of contributors, that’s a big deal💻
The Wikimedia Foundation argued that being lumped in with “Category 1” sites—essentially the internet’s regulatory heavyweights—was a poor fit. We think the rules were broad, and if we are polite, logically questionable🤔
One of the "solutions" were offered to Wikipedia was to tell it to shrink its UK user base by three-quarters (yes, limit how many people use it) or turn off core functions. In short: government regulation designed for social media giants could accidentally break one of the web’s most relied-upon knowledge hubs😱
The court sided with the government, but there’s a silver lining. The judgment explicitly reminds Ofcom and ministers that Wikipedia isn’t just another platform to slap rules on. Legal experts point out the door is still open for future challenges if the rules actually start to hinder operations. So, while Wikipedia may have lost this round, it hasn’t lost the war😰
The court rejected Wikimedia’s challenge, but it didn’t give Ofcom or the government a free pass to crush Wikipedia. Legal experts note the ruling “left the door open” for future challenges if Category 1 classification threatens the site’s operations. Essentially, Wikipedia may still have a path to avoid the strictest rules—highlighting the tension between regulatory ambition and the realities of volunteer-run platforms.😐
🧠So what?
This case highlights a recurring tension in online governance: how do you create safety rules for platforms without accidentally throttling the very ecosystems that make the internet valuable? Anonymity and open contribution are core to knowledge-sharing—but current legislation struggles to differentiate between “toxic social feed” and “global encyclopedia.” For anyone building or regulating online communities, this ruling is a cautionary tale: size and influence may bring scrutiny, but one-size-fits-all rules are rarely a perfect fit.
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💸Money talks💸
Britain’s biggest bosses just collected a whopping £1 billion in pay last year. That’s right: 217 executives took home more cash than most of their employees will ever see in a lifetime, and the average FTSE 100 CEO now earns 122 times what the average UK worker makes💸
Meanwhile, households are juggling rising rents, grocery bills, and the occasional existential dread of layoffs.
The crown goes to Melrose Industries, whose executives raked in £212 million, prompting critics to whisper “robber baron capitalism.” AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot, last year’s FTSE top earner at £14.7m, is now politely third behind Melrose and Pearson execs. The number of CEOs pocketing £10m+ jumped from 10 to 13 in a year—because nothing says “we understand the cost of living crisis” like a bonus bigger than most people’s mortgages.💰
Female leaders? They’re still getting the short end of the stick: the nine FTSE companies run entirely by women had a median CEO pay of £3.27m, compared with £4.64m for men. So while the men are busy earning millions, women are showing up to the boardroom with slightly less sparkle in their paychecks.
The High Pay Centre is calling for reforms: more transparency, worker-elected directors, and proper reporting of CEO pay. Basically, they’re asking for checks and balances, but don’t hold your breath—these execs are clearly on a winning streak.💷
🧠So what?
The insight? It’s not just about fairness—it’s about talent and influence. Boards still reward a narrow profile of leaders, leaving structural hurdles for women at the top. When incentives, bonuses, and decision-making power cluster unevenly, it shapes the culture, risk appetite, and pipeline for future leaders. Money talks, and right now, it’s mostly speaking in a very male voice.
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💻Government bots 💻
The UK government is experimenting with something that will be music to the big tech companies ears😎
The UK government has decided that filling out forms, booking appointments, and figuring out your career path is actually a waste of time. Enter agentic AI—digital helpers that could soon act on your behalf, from getting a new GP to helping you find an apprenticeship or even updating your electoral roll when you move house.😯
Yes, really. Starting as early as 2027, the plan is to get frontier AI labs to team up with Whitehall experts to trial AI agents that do stuff for you. Not just suggest, not just remind—you literally tell them what you want and they go do it🤔
Tech Secretary Peter Kyle calls it “world-first” and promises it will “rethink public services.” Translation: fewer humans, more robots, and hopefully less queueing. The government is taking a cautious “scan, pilot, scale” approach—which, in human speak, means: “we’ll test it, make sure it doesn’t blow up, and then slowly take over your life.”😅
Read more: UK government press release
🧠So what?
If it works, this is huge. Real people could save hours on tedious bureaucracy, apprenticeships and careers could get tailored guidance, and moving house might finally stop being a Kafkaesque nightmare. But let’s be honest: the plan also raises eyebrows. Who decides what the AI does? How do you check for bias or errors? And if it messes up your life admin, do you get a refund?
For startups and AI labs, this is a rare “come build the future with us” moment. Your code could one day help millions navigate life’s admin hell—and make Whitehall look like a tech unicorn, but in reality it'll probably just be the big enterprise sales solution
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📈 The tools behind the tech📉
📦Product📦
📏Design📏
👩🏿💻Code👩🏿💻
🏢The business behind the tech🏢
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🌐Partner Events & Opportunties 🌐 |
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AI for everyone
Boost your career with free AI training – Apply now!
Colorintech is offering free AI courses to Everyone as part of
the Google.org AI Opportunity Fund: Europe.
This course will equip you with the necessary knowledge and practical experience to succeed in today’s AI driven job market.
If you’re looking to upskill in AI, boost your employability, and
open doors to exciting career opportunities, this is your chance!
Applications are open now — visit our website to apply
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BTF
Munya Chawawa is speaking at this year's BTF
Get your tickets now
Here is more info: joinbtf.com
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Progress in public
Learn about Delivery Manager, User Researcher, and Product careers in the Civil Service
On Aug 20th, we’re teaming up with the awesome team at Government Digital and Data for the second time to talk all about careers and opportunities for:
🌟Delivery Managers
🌟User Researcher
🌟Product Manager
To help with this, we’ll have three inspiring civil servants to share their career journeys and tips for getting a role in the public sector. We’ll be welcoming:
Nicola Hancock - Senior User Researcher, MOJ
Mac-Donnel Graham-Douglas - Product Manager, FCDO
This is a great opportunity for anyone considering a career in the civil service to learn more about the job opportunities available, and how to successfully navigate the hiring process!
Check out the key details below:
Date: 20th August 2025
Time: 12:00 - 13:30
Where: Zoom
If you’re interested in dialling into this webinar, then be sure to get a space using the link below:
https://lu.ma/progressinpublictwo
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🙌🏾The latest from the Colorintech team🙌🏾 |
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